People

This page contains a list of the people (Classical, biblical or historical) mentioned in the First Examination, followed by links to biographical information indicated by the name of the resource site. This data can also be found in the apparatus of the PDF edition available under ‘Texts’ in this website. The ‘Editorial Note’ in it clarifies the sources used. Information has been digested from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), and a few other non-electronic sources duly noted, when no reliable or adequate free online resource for an individual could be found.

Arnoldus Bostius of Ghent, 1446–4 April 1499. Bostius (Boschius, de Bost) entered the Carmelite monastery, in his native Ghent and was elected prior several times. It has not been established where he studied of what degrees he obtained, and in general very little is known about his life.Bostius soon earned his reputation as a theologian, poet, and historian and was on friendly terms with a large number of scholars and humanists of the time, among them Ermolao Barbaro, Baptista Mantuanus, Johannes Trithemius, Conrad Celtis, Robert Gaguin, Charles and Jean Fernand, Cornelio Vitelli, Cornelis Gerard (Ep 81), and Willem Hermans (Ep 65A). Bostius encouraged their literary activity and always asked for copies of their works; thus he became a pivotal figure in the exchanges between the Italian and Parisian humanists and the Netherlands. Bostius himself wrote several theological and historical works focused on the Virgin Mary and on the Carmelite order. He died at Ghent in 1499.From Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas Brian Deutscher eds. Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, 1–3 (Toronto: University of Torornto Press, 1985). Reprint 2003. p. 176.

J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D’Ooge and M. Grant Daniell eds., ‘Caesar’s Literary Work’ in Caesar’s Gallic War (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1898) available in the Perseus Project. Caesar’s literary rather than political career is pertinent to Bale’s citation.

Edward Crome (d. 1562), clergyman and religious controversialist. Although known for his political savvy in negotiating the dangerous waters of the reformist movement, in 1547 he attacked the doctrine of transubstantiation in sermons delivered at St Mary Aldermary and at the Mercer’s chapel, St Thomas Acon, preaching that the mass was a commemoration of Christs’ death. He was accused of heresy like Askew, seemed to submit but was urged not to by fellow reformers like Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton. He appeared at Paul’s Cross on 27 June to deliver an ambiguous apology. Askew, who had attended his sermons, was burned on 16 July. See Susan Wabuda, ‘Crome, Edward (d. 1562)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6749, accessed 22 Jan 2015]. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6749

Anchoress Eva (c. 1205-65). The following passage from Butler’s Lives of the Saints, first published 1999, Kent: Burns & Oates, 1999. Original Butler’s Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal saints[…] (London, 1756–9). First revised edition Herbert Thurston, S.J. ed., Butler’s Lives of the Saints (Kent: Burns, Oates & Washburn Limited, 1926–38). Second edition Herbert Thurston S.J., and Donald Attwater eds., (Kent: Burns & Oates Limited, 1954–8) provides some details of her life:’Eva, or Heva, was born between 1205 and 1210. She seems to have become a recluse at the suggestion of Bd Juliana […] and spent the rest of her life in a cell attached to St Martin’s church in Liege—hence the other name by which she is sometimes known, Eva of St Martin. She and Juliana became close friends, and it was with her that Juliana took refuge when she was forced to leave her convent for the first time […]’ [p. 34] She was associated with the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi.

Walter Hunt, also called Venantius, d. 1478, was a Carmelite friar and theologian at Oxford. He played a prominent role in the negotiations between the Latin and Greek Orthodox churches, representing the English Carmelite side. Bale attests that he was a prolific writer, although only two short texts survive. Bale saw his works in the Carmelite library at Oxford and records twenty-five titles, among which is noted a treatise against preaching by women. For sources see Richard Copsey, ‘Hunt , Walter (d. 1478)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14211, accessed 10 March 2015. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/14211

Church of England clergyman and poet, d. 1583. He was known as Huntington the Preacher. His early sympathies were Catholic. He composed a polemical poem around 1540 which contained verses such as ‘O braynlesse nodye/ Christ sayd my bodye/ Is verely meate/ For manne to eat’ which survives only in John Bale’s refutation of it in A Mysterye of Inyquyte Contayned within the Heretycall Genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus in 1545. According to Bale, he converted to Protestantism by 1545 and thus he is mentioned by Askew as a sympathetic clergyman. Sourced from Richard Rex, ‘Huntington, John (d. 1583)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14241, accessed 8 March 2015]. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/14241.

Johannes Paleonydorum, pseud. of John Oudewarer of Mechlin, d. 1507. Elaine Beilin notes that Bale’s transcript of this correspondence is now in the Bodleian Library, MS Selden, supra 41. Paleonydorum was a Flemish Carmelite monk. From 1495–97 he wrote three histories of his own order, chief among which, the Liber trimerestus, is considered to be the first printed history of the Carmelites. The British Library MS Cotton Vitellius D. iv is a badly damaged transcript of the 1497 Mainz edition.

John Standish, c. 1509–1570, church of England clergyman, Bishop Bonner’s appointee as rector of St Andrew Undershaft in London and later vicar of Northall, Middlesex. He advocated the burning of English Bibles, thus incurring Bale’s wrath.